


sweet words and fevers

by and_hera



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: ADD/ADHD Skye | Daisy Johnson, Could Be Canon, Episode: s02e13 One of Us, F/F, Kissing, Season/Series 02, Therapy, girls do b kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:29:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27680738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/and_hera/pseuds/and_hera
Summary: “Compartmentalizing,” Skye echoes, tasting the word on her tongue. She scrunches her nose. “The word sounds like the meaning, doesn’t it.Com-part-ment-al-i-zing. Lots of syllables, lots of steps, very separate.” She snaps her fingers. “It’s like staccato, in music! You ever play an instrument?”Garner sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Skye, what did I say about changing the subject?”or, Skye and Simmons are dealing with it all.
Relationships: Jemma Simmons/Skye | Daisy Johnson
Comments: 7
Kudos: 66





	sweet words and fevers

**Author's Note:**

> hello aos nation!  
> i have never written for this fandom before! i literally just watched this episode today! i'm having a fantastic time and i am reacting to this media normally!  
> anyway. this was going to be part of a bigger fic but i decided it worked well on its own! take this!  
> also, skye is non-binary <3 this isn't important but she makes a little comment about it <3  
> title from hard feelings/loveless by lorde bc i had melodrama on repeat while writing this

So, Skye’s never been the most eloquent person.

Well, maybe that isn’t true. She read when she was a kid, whatever she could get her hands on moving from house to house, family to family. Read plenty of things she probably shouldn’t have at such a young age. Not like the parents stopped her. Point is, she has a good vocabulary, at least.

But Skye doesn’t really apply it anywhere, and she has no intent or need to. She’s smart and she uses her fun, pretty-sounding big words to make jokes and sound smarter than she actually is, and that’s it. She doesn’t think eloquently at all, either.

Mostly, she thinks in lists. It goes like this:

Currently, Skye is

  * trapped- no, no. try again.



Currently, Skye is

  * living in the holding cell
  * _fine_ with the fact that she’s living in the holding cell, thank you very much
  * painfully by herself, even though she’s not technically being quarantined
  * having therapy with her S.O.’s ex-husband
  * stopping the shaking



Skye is living with all of these things. She’s working on it. 

Garner is nice, considering… everything. He’s a good dude. She hasn’t gotten over the fact that she’s seen May, like, _open-mouth smile_ around him.

If the man gets that much of a reaction out of her, Skye wonders why she ever got divorced. Assuming that May was the one to break it off, of course.

Eh, Garner’s kind of a pussy. May definitely broke it off.

“Skye,” Garner says, a funny smile on his face that Skye has come to understand as his _I’ve figured you out_ smile, “I think that you’re a master at compartmentalizing.”

“Compartmentalizing,” Skye echoes, tasting the word on her tongue. She scrunches her nose. “The word sounds like the meaning, doesn’t it. _Com-part-ment-al-i-zing_. Lots of syllables, lots of steps, very separate.” She snaps her fingers. “It’s like staccato, in music! You ever play an instrument?”

Garner sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Skye, what did I say about changing the subject?”

“One of the schools I went to when I was in fifth grade made me play an instrument,” Skye says conversationally. “I chose flute. Staccato is like, when a note is very short and cut off from the others. It’s whatever the opposite of opera is.”

“Somehow, I don’t think your brain is very opera-esque,” Garner says, resigned. Skye snorts. He folds his hands in his lap. “Skye, I know you’re struggling, here. And I want to help.”

“Actually, I don’t think I _am_ struggling,” Skye replies. And, well, that’s like _mostly_ true. Mentally, she feels fine. A little more stressed out? Sure! But that’s been happening for ages. Right now, her one concern is getting worried and- you know. Shaking the Bus until it snaps in half. But what the hell is a shrink going to do for her? “Not mentally, anyway.”

When Skye was eleven or twelve, one of her foster parents mentioned that they thought she might have ADHD. Skye didn't know what that meant. They told her it was like having a motor inside you, keeping you in motion, thinking too fast for your mouth or your hands. Skye's powers feel like that, a little. A motor, or a thousand bees just under her skin.

Except, now, Skye doesn't have to get rid of her unending energy by running and accidentally breaking things. Now she can- well. She can run and break bigger things.

Garner shrugs. “I would say that your position as a woman with superpowers- or, whatever you want to call your abilities- encourages mental stress. And you know that I’m only here for your check-up, Skye. This isn’t actual therapy.”

Skye holds back a cringe. “Can you… can you not call me a woman?” She waves a hand. Garner raises an eyebrow but nods. “And sure, fine, whatever. Am I… you know…” she winks. “Passing the test?”

“Please stop,” Garner says tiredly. 

“Ah, you’re no fun,” Skye replies brightly, and she kicks her heels against her bed. Her bed is small and very flat. She isn’t used to it yet and she kind of hates it.

“Skye,” Garner says.

“Mr. May’s Ex-Husband,” Skye returns, just as formally. 

“You need to think about this some time,” Garner says, ignoring her. “I know you’re very clever and find workarounds for your own brain. Melinda has told me about how you’re a phenomenal hacker.”

Skye smiles, and it’s genuine this time. She’s generally confident in her own abilities, but it’s nice to have it affirmed. Especially by May. Skye cares about May’s opinion more than she’d care to admit.

“What’s your plan, then, moving forward?” Garner asks.

Skye sighs. She pulls one of her legs up onto the bed and rests her elbow on her knee. “Keep containing my power,” she says. “Keep stopping it from getting too far.”

“Will that work forever?”

“It might!”

“It’s more likely that it won’t.”

“Well, who fucking knows?” Skye says, and she lets a little frustration out. Damn. She was hoping to make it through _one_ session without letting the guy needle some emotion out of her. “I’m part fucking _alien_. No one knows jack about what I can do. Or about what does and doesn’t work.”

Garner puts his hands up as a truce. “I get it,” he says. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Skye huffs.

“So, keep containing it,” he says. “Keep practicing and getting better.”

“I don’t know if _practicing_ is the right word,” Skye mutters. “But yeah. That.”

Garner nods. “That’s enough for today,” he says. He smiles. “You’re quite a patient, Skye.”

Dryly, Skye says, “Considering that this is coming from a therapist, I don’t know whether to be honored or concerned.”

Garner pretends to think about it for a moment. “Probably the latter,” he decides, and Skye laughs.

* * *

Simmons has a lot to consider.

See, Coulson gave her a job. She’s supposed to be looking for places that people can go to be… _away_ from it all. She's also supposed to be finding a way to stop- no, to _suppress_ Skye's powers. And she’s been looking it up, of course she has, Coulson asked her to. 

Working with Hydra has reminded Simmons of what loyalty looks like. It’s also demonstrated to Simmons what the phrase _to the death_ truly means.

Simmons thinks she could have lived her whole life without having to see Hydra. Simmons wishes she hadn’t left. Simmons wishes she never came back.

She hasn’t been talking to Fitz for the last few days. He lied to her, and she doesn’t know if she can forgive him for it. Objectively, Simmons knows that she shouldn’t be angry with him, since he was just doing what he thought was best. Subjectively, Simmons _knows_ that in a sick sort of way, this is probably karma for leaving him behind. 

Because she lied to him then, didn’t she? 

Simmons did what she thought was best. That is what she always does, and that is what she always will do. Simmons can’t stand to stand still and let the world happen to her. Simmons will happen to the world, instead.

Right now, Simmons is standing in an empty lab, racking her brain to find a way to keep everyone she loves safe. She’ll never find it, and she knows it. She tries anyway, because it’s better to say that you have tried something and failed than to say you never tried. Simmons will take _Lessons She Learned When She Was Nine Years Old in Math Class_ for a thousand, Alex. 

She’s looking at a little wooden house on a screen. It’s a nice place. A safehouse. Skye would be safe there, and everyone else would be safe from Skye. A good solution. Simmons hasn’t even had a conversation with Skye about all of this, yet, and she wishes she could walk up to her and smile and laugh and hug her and be a normal person with a normal friend.

She wishes that she was talking to Fitz.

Simmons swipes her hand across the screen and it goes dark. She sits back into her swivel chair, and it spins with momentum. She watches the lab go around her.

The door opens, and she jumps right back up. “Oh, hello Skye,” she says, only a little awkwardly.

Simmons learned to lie through her teeth at Hydra. She could do that now. She could pretend that everything is fine and hold a conversation. She doesn’t, though, because it still feels too soon to lie and she doesn’t want to associate conversations with Skye and conversations at Hydra.

“Hey, Jemma,” Skye says. She stands on the other side of the table Simmons has been working at, palms flat on the surface. She rocks back and forth on her feet, though. Simmons has never seen Skye not in motion.

“Is there something I can help you with?” Simmons asks.

Skye chews on her bottom lip. “I don’t know,” she says eventually. “I just- I was wondering about something.”

Simmons tilts her head a little. “Is it about… you know.” She gestures to a computer across the room that has diagrams of Skye’s DNA across it. “I can explain it- well, I can explain what very little of it we understand, if you would like. I understand that a lot is happening, and-”

“Oh, oh no,” Skye interrupts, picking up her hands to wave in the air. Simmons’ mouth snaps shut and she clasps her hands together in front of her stomach instead. “Sorry. I mean, I would like to hear about that eventually. It is, you know.” Skye looks herself up and down. “Inside me.” She makes a fist and knocks on her forehead. “But who knows what the fuck is going on in there already, you know? Without… alien stuff.” She makes jazz hands.

A beat. “Ah,” Simmons replies. “I- sure. I think I understand that.” Skye rocks back on her heels and makes a clicking noise with her tongue. “What _did_ you come down here for, then?”

Skye exhales sharply. “Fitz,” she says simply. “You’re being an ass.”

Simmons stammers. “I- oh- oh, that’s not fair!” she says eventually. “ _He_ is the one who-”

“ _He_ is the one who protected me from someone who thought that those who underwent transformations should be taken down,” Skye replies coolly. Then she shakes her head quickly, eyes wide. “I don’t think you think that,” she says. “I was just- he was trying to protect me.”

And- and goddamnit, of course that’s why Fitz did it. Simmons knows that’s why; she knew before Skye told her. It’s just- _goddamnit_! Can he be anything but good, ever? Doesn’t he want to be something? Everything he does just sacrifices himself more and gives himself away until there won’t be anything left of him, but shouldn’t that make him want to protect what’s left?

When Simmons was undercover, she saw the technology and opportunities Hydra held. And she wasn’t tempted, but she kind of was. Fitz never would have been, though, because Fitz is a genuinely good person who- who-

“Jemma?” Skye says slowly. “Are you okay?”

Simmons exhales shakily. “Yes,” she says. “Sorry. I’m just.” She sighs again, and shakes her head. “Sorry. I know I’ve been an ass to him, and I’ll apologize.”

“Are you… okay, Jemma?” Skye asks. She moves around the table and takes Simmons’ hands into her own. Simmons knows they’re shaking. She wonders if Skye could feel them shaking before she even touched her.

“No, not really,” Simmons confesses, because she’s always been terrible at lying. “It’s all just so much.”

Skye laughs, short and loud. “Yeah, isn’t it just.”

“Sorry,” Simmons says again. “I know what I’m going through can’t _possibly_ be compared to what you’re going through. And, for what it’s worth, I am very sorry for ever making you feel like I wouldn’t try and help you.”

Skye shakes her head. “I know,” she says. “I know that. It was just scary, I guess. And having Fitz on my side- well, it helped a little.”

“Well, I’ve never met someone who wasn’t better for having Leo Fitz on their side.”

Skye hums. “I think you’re right.”

“I just didn’t know what to do,” Simmons confesses.

“So you did everything,” Skye replies. “You didn’t want to deal with Fitz, so you went to Hydra. You didn’t understand Raina, so you considered taking her apart to find what makes her tick. You’re a do-er.”

Simmons takes her hands from Skye’s. “That’s not why I left,” she says, and she’s a little hurt, because it _wasn’t_. “He wasn’t getting any better with me around. I- I thought- I thought it would be better to have me away.”

“What even happened down there to make you so afraid?” Skye asks. Her voice isn’t accusing but genuinely confused and frustrated. “Jemma, ever since you came back from Hydra, it’s like you only know how to be afraid!”

“Well, I _am_ afraid,” Simmons shoots back. “S.H.I.E.L.D. is in shambles, and everything is coming apart, and my best friend is lying to me about science and my other best friend isn’t human, Skye! I’m sorry that while trying to keep it all together I forgot to keep smiling!” She smiles, then, but it’s only to prove her point. “I know I’m the smart one and the nice one but lately I only have time for one or the other and you need me to be the former.”

Skye takes a step forward. “No one is asking you to be perfect,” she says, voice carefully not loud. 

“That’s what _everyone_ is asking of me,” Simmons snaps. “I’ll be fine. I just can’t be fine and act fine on the outside at the same time, I suppose.” She scoffs. “I’ll work on fixing that as soon as I figure out what your new DNA entails.”

Skye takes another step towards her, and Simmons realizes that they are very close to one another. And it’s very late at night, and Simmons has had a very long day. Skye is a little taller than her. 

“Low blow, bringing up the alien stuff,” Skye mutters. Simmons leans up and kisses her.

Skye makes a surprised noise into her mouth, and Simmons is worried for a moment that she’s done something monumentally stupid but then she kisses her back. Skye is a fantastic kisser. Skye tastes like mint, or maybe she just brushed her teeth. Skye is holding Simmons’ face between her hands. Simmons lays her arms over Skye’s shoulders. This is probably a bad idea. Simmons leans back to catch her breath, and then Skye follows her and kisses her again. 

“Jemma,” Skye says after a moment. “My question still stands.”

“Question?” Simmons asks, because she has sort of forgotten their whole argument.

“About Fitz, and the ocean,” Skye says. “What happened down there?”

Fitz and the ocean and the first law of thermodynamics. Simmons didn't realize that having Fitz around was her baseline until he wasn't around.

Simmons leans up and kisses Skye again, and Skye kisses her back and pushes Simmons until she’s against the desk and can’t move. “I’ll tell you some other time,” Simmons says.

This is a bad idea. Simmons thinks she might regret this, and she worries that Skye might regret this. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she thinks that she could classify this as alien experimentation.

Skye taps her fingers across Simmons’ collarbone. “Okay,” she says quietly, and takes Simmons’ bottom lip between her teeth. 

Simmons wonders if she’s imagining the tremors running through the table.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! please please please leave comments and come talk to me on twitter @lcvelaces <3


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